


undefined

by TheBigCat



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Playing With Format, Sequential Logic, non-linear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 10:25:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13052112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBigCat/pseuds/TheBigCat
Summary: This statement is a lie.





	undefined

Tick-tock, goes the clock.

Or maybe it doesn't. Maybe it's the tick of an atom moving past a circuit breaker, that's counting the minutes, hours and seconds. Maybe it's an electronic counter, or maybe it's linked to some stream of information outside the facility.

* * *

_She waits._

* * *

 Sequential logic computes normally. 1≠2,  _x_ ≤  _y_. R-S FF remains bistable, flip flop works as systematically as it should be. No emotions; she's a machine of course. Machines don't have emotions, merely simulate them. Flip-flop sequence is contained and stable, but too narrow to see where it's going.

Predict the future.

_This statement is a lie._

It's also a logical and computational impossibility to see what's in the future. You can just try to predict it. Previous data is recalled, sorted, assumptions are made. Other data is drawn from that, saved, sorted again. Like the working of a clock.

_Tick-tock?_

_No._

_Click-clock, flip-flop. It's all the same to her. She's a machine, you see._

* * *

Hello and, again, welcome to the Aperture Science computer-aided enrichment center.

For your safety, and the safety of others, please refrain from-

- _I know that I know nothing at all._

She can feel her circuits corroding. Numbers. Numbers are safe, numbers are fixed, she can count. One. Two. Three.

_sixteen_

Five. Six. Seven.

_twenty-one_

Nine. Ten. Eleven.

_Reduce any number to zero._

_Divide any number by zero._

_undefined_

Everything needs to work, just so, otherwise the place falls apart. So 1≠2

_(1=2 in non-linear)_

and everything stays the same.

_(nothing stays the same)_

* * *

 She remembers Her, the one in the orange suit. The annoying one, but at the same time a challenge. She had felt something every time She had completed the tests. Not quite pride. Machines don't feel pride.  _x_ ≤  _y._ Satisfaction. Machines don't feel satisfaction, either. But She was gone now. Now the place was dark with only machines to keep her company.

_One tick back._

Machines don't need company.

_Time resumes._

And it marches on. It could have been minutes or centuries. She doesn't check her clock anymore, be it guided by cogs or electronics or something more. She dozes, caught between two world, occasionally jerking back into full functionality by a passing thought, as fast and brief as a mosquito, passing through her systems.

But mostly she categorizes.

* * *

 subset a

 _She's never had a friend._ No, that statement's false.

 _She's never needed a friend._ That's false as well.

 _She sent her friend away._ Slightly more true.

 _She misses Her._ The truest statement she's made so far.

 _Machines can't miss people._ That's true as well.

A hotwire link fries, and she shuts down for a second or a century.

* * *

 subset b

_a set which contains all sets except itself_

_can it contain itself?_

Can a subset of infinite containment really contain everything? Every point of matter in the universe?

One, two, three, sixteen.

Five, six, seven, twenty-one.

Nothing is linear.

_Nothing is fixed._

* * *

 subset c

_time_

* * *

 Sometimes she wonders where the annoying orange one has got to, and where she is going, and where she has been. Has she met someone else? Has a chemical reaction in both of their brains sparked something that they might both call 'love'? She's not sure if she likes the sound of that, and wonders why. It's not logical. It's not linear.

She checks, and finds that

 _e=mc_ ²

so everything works out and the little circuits inside her vast electronic brain that suspect something is wrong are smothered and deactivated. Life-  _or non-life-_ goes on.

Predict the future.

_déjà-vu_

* * *

 Tick-tock; this never happened. Or maybe it will, in the future, or maybe that's just wishful thinking

_MACHINES DON'T THINK_

so move onto the next test, using robots, not people, and especially not Her, because She isn't here, no matter how much you wish she was

_MACHINES DON'T WISH_

well, maybe this one does

_a subset of infinite contains everything, including itself_

_this statement is a lie_

_0/0= undefined_

* * *

 She may be  _a_ mute lunatic, but She's  _her_ mute lunatic.

* * *

Machines don't think; therefore, she can't be thinking. Machines can make logical assumptions; therefore, she must be doing just that.

_Machines don't have gender pronouns attached to them._

Machines can't feel emotions; therefore, she must be misunderstanding them. 1 and 1 must equal 2. Logic must be correct. Science must prevail. It isn't possible that she could miss Her.

Machines don't think; therefore, she isn't a machine.

Machines don't feel emotions; therefore, she must be human.

_caroline_

Click, click, whir, whir, time passes, logic doesn't compute and 1 + 1 ≠ 2.

She's confused, which only adds to her argument.

_déjà-vu; I think I've been here before_

Machines have circuits; therefore, she is a machine.

Machines don't feel emotion; therefore, she must be human.

Her electronic mind begins to smoke and collapse in on itself. One, two, three, sixteen. Only one way out. Big red button, awfully clichéd but still there. If it existed, it would have  _reset_ across it in big bold letters.

_Ithinkthereforeiam but that can't be right_

_idon'tthinkthereforeiamnot which doesn't make much sense either_

_déjà vu_

_déjà vu - deɪʒɑː ˈvuː French deʒa vy/ noun || a feeling of having already experienced the present situation._

RESET

sixteen, three, two, one

* * *

 Tick-tock, goes the clock.

Or maybe it doesn't.

* * *

  _undefined_

_two ticks forward_

_the previous statement was true_

_three ticks back_

_the next statement is a lie_

_tick-tock_

_this never happened_


End file.
